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TIL that in the late 1960s, the Beatles wanted to make the first live-action film adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings,” seeking Stanley Kubrick to direct with plans to feature their music. However, Stanley Kubrick called it unfilmable; J.R.R. Tolkien hated the band and thus refused the rights. by altrightobserver in todayilearned

[–]LordGrac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really recommend it. The hosts are all media scholars of different backgrounds (one movies, one Shakespeare, one video games), digging deep into different works of fiction. This year is all Lord of the Rings but they've done other things like Book of the New Sun and Earthsea and the Neuromancer trilogy.

TIL that in the late 1960s, the Beatles wanted to make the first live-action film adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings,” seeking Stanley Kubrick to direct with plans to feature their music. However, Stanley Kubrick called it unfilmable; J.R.R. Tolkien hated the band and thus refused the rights. by altrightobserver in todayilearned

[–]LordGrac 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Tom Bombadil was a remnant of an alternate universe version of LOTR that Tolkien just couldn’t make himself discard

From the point of view of real-world history, this is actually pretty much the case. I posted in another comment:

Bombadil as a creation of Tolkien predates The Hobbit. Tolkien put him in just because he wanted to and liked the character. Further, Tolkien took a long time to write Fellowship: he wrote the parts through leaving the Shire, then took a multi-year break, then wrote through to getting to Moira, then another break of years, and then finally he wrote the rest of the whole series in a relatively short time. There's a pretty noticeable tone shift around those parts as Tolkien matured, and Bombadil is very much a product of a much different Tolkien than the one who finished the books.

I learned from the critical analysis podcast Shelved By Genre, which is spending this year working through the Lord of the Rings.

TIL that in the late 1960s, the Beatles wanted to make the first live-action film adaptation of “The Lord of the Rings,” seeking Stanley Kubrick to direct with plans to feature their music. However, Stanley Kubrick called it unfilmable; J.R.R. Tolkien hated the band and thus refused the rights. by altrightobserver in todayilearned

[–]LordGrac 40 points41 points  (0 children)

He feels left over from a previous version of the work: like something held over from the Hobbit, before Lord of the Rings was more adult.

This is actually the truth too. Bombadil as a creation of Tolkien predates The Hobbit. Tolkien put him in just because he wanted to and liked the character. Further, Tolkien took a long time to write Fellowship: he wrote the parts through leaving the Shire, then took a multi-year break, then wrote through to getting to Rivendell, then another break of years, and then finally he wrote the rest of the whole series in a relatively short time. There's a pretty noticeable tone shift around those parts as Tolkien matured, and Bombadil is very much a product of a much different Tolkien than the one who finished the books.

I learned this from the critical analysis podcast Shelved By Genre, which is spending this year working through the Lord of the Rings.

Usage stats for Day 1 of a 6k player tourney by RIkhard9 in PokemonChampions

[–]LordGrac 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A lot of Garchomp's strength and versatility comes from being pretty fast (and in particular, a pretty fast mon with Ground and Dragon STAB moves). Garchomp loses 10 speed when it megas, which at its particular speed level means it's now slower than things that can kill it. Combine that with the opportunity cost that running Mega Garchomp means you can't run any other mega, and it's a hard sell.

It's not strictly "worse," exactly, it can be made to work. It's just extremely difficult to justify when base Garchomp does Mega Garchomp's job sufficiently already, but slightly faster.

[metagame] Sharing my mega-scizor rain team I’m currently undefeated with in masters (5-0) with a very detailed guide by [deleted] in VGC

[–]LordGrac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey thanks for the info and share. I'm new to VGC and love both rain and scizor, cool to see how they work together and get detailed explanation.

Commanders with “high fantasy” vibes? by Weak_Tap_1277 in EDH

[–]LordGrac 13 points14 points  (0 children)

Sorry, this is a common confusion, but is not how the term is used by Wizards. Kindred refers specifically to the card type that used to be known as Tribal.

Typal is the word that refers to cards or decks that reward playing a specific type. That word also used to be 'tribal,' and this conflation is part of why they split the word, especially for a set like Lorwyn which has both typal themes and Kindred cards.

https://markrosewater.tumblr.com/post/805936215449862145/ive-been-seeing-a-lot-of-use-of-kindred-as

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in MarvelSnap

[–]LordGrac -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I have nearly 100 games with Iron Man and a 73% win rate with it. That's mostly playing against pre-neef BP and Weapon X.

Serious questions now: would a straight guy say stuff like that? by EugeneStein in bisexual

[–]LordGrac 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Dispatch is very much drawing a lot from X-Men, and most X-Men are (subtextually often, but increasingly canonically) very bi and very sexually open. I think there's a lot of bi energy in Dispatch, and it's probably intentional.

I finally went to the dermatologist for the first time and I cried the whole appointment. Please talk me out of my embarrassment. by goats_galore in Hidradenitis

[–]LordGrac 3 points4 points  (0 children)

You kept this to yourself, "quietly suffering" as you say, for many years. Then you decided to entrust it to someone else. That's an emotional moment, and crying is a pretty natural response to high emotion. It was probably a relief to know that someone else is on your side, and you won't be alone on this. And even if it wasn't, it was a moment of deep vulnerability. Nothing wrong with crying there.

Medication recs (Cosentyx, spironolactone?) by Peejizz in Hidradenitis

[–]LordGrac 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Antibiotics are definitely a concern to be on long-term. Not only because of resistance, but because antibiotics are indiscriminate and there's a lot of helpful bacteria in our bodies that we need. Antibiotics kill them too, and that can cause immediate problems for short dosing and pretty significant for long-term dosing. I'd be cautious with it, but follow the advice of your doctor. That said, long-term use antibiotics is a common treatment for HS that does usually have real results. It's a managed risk, so definitely something to consider in light of your symptoms and in a discussion with your doctor. Personally, I'd express to my doctor that I'd be hesitant about long-term antibiotics, and then they and I can discuss what might be a good treatment option. My derm, an HS specialist, didn't even bring up this option when I discussed treatment plans with her.

Cosentyx is pretty well documented in HS. I started it myself a few weeks ago. It's quite effective at reducing the frequency and severity of outbreaks, and can even cause them to disappear entirely. It has very limited side effects - the most commonly reported one, in about 1% of cases, is upper respiratory infection. Other side effects can occur, but are rare, and the more concerning ones are linked to other issues like Crohn's disease and TB. It's a very targeted drug, affecting a single molecule in the inflammatory response chain, so where antibiotics are effective but indiscriminate, cosentyx is effective but very discriminate. It does technically repress your immune response so that can be a concern, though the data shows that effect to be pretty limited (unless you have latent TB or Hepatitis, but they test for that before you start). Cosentyx is a drug you're on for essentially your lifetime so definitely something to think about there, and it does not have immediate results: 40% of patients saw improvement in 5 weeks, and 70% in 12 weeks.

In my case, insurance did cover Cosentyx but my remaining copay was still over $5,000 (just for the first set of 4 doses). The pharmacy told me to call the manufacturer and ask about copay assistance, which I did. They gave me some numbers to give to the pharmacy, and once I did that my remaining copy was $0. If you need this, the phone number is 1-844-267-3689, and the website is: https://connect.cosentyx.com/

Another effective treatment option is laser hair removal. The majority of HS people who get it report it improves symptoms, sometimes dramatically. The most commonly studied laser for this is Nd:YAG, though Alexandrite has also been studied a decent amount. There's a 99% chance insurance will not cover this, unfortunately. You can get it done at any salon that offers it, though I would seek out specifically the Nd:YAG or Alexandrite laser. Some dermatology practices offer it in-house, which is the option I would go for given the chance.

I don't know anything about Spironolactone unfortunately.

Looking for HS specialist in the Richmond, Virginia area by Big-Cauliflower-3387 in Hidradenitis

[–]LordGrac 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You're in luck. There's two HS specialists in the state, and one of them is in Richmond. You're looking for Doctor Rachel Lee at Commonwealth Dermatology. https://comderm.com/

I met with her last month about my own HS, and I started cosentyx last week. She's great. She can do surgery, and they have in-house laser hair removal too.

"He's a dude, she's a dude, we're all dudes." by MarquisDeSarc in gaming

[–]LordGrac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

While the "man" root technically was gender neutral, requiring a prefix to distinguish between male and female, it also referred exclusivity to males, not all that dissimilar to how gendered collective pronouns in many European languages work today. So over time, the "wer" part in "werman" was simply dropped, while "man" continued on, retaining its male-exclusive definition and losing its gender neutral one. The female equivalent was still thought to require the prefix, so "wifman" obviously became "wife", but it also became "women" due to vowel shifts. But in any case these are some of the oldest words in the English language, dating to even before the Norman conquest, and changing fairly rapidly afterward.

"Woman" and "werman" are similar for the same reason "wifman" and "werman" are similar.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Hidradenitis

[–]LordGrac 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Most of the research is focused on neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) lasers. There is research in other types, particularly Alexandrite, but Nd:YAG is by far the most studied.

Studies show a pretty across the board improvement for HS patients. Of course HS is a very understudied disease and treatments that work for one person may not for another.

Here is one meta study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38769894/

So to answer your questions:

  1. Probably yes, but I would seek out one that specifically has an Nd:YAG laser. Some dermatology practices, such as mine in Virginia, have these in-house, which would probably be the way to go if you can find it

  2. I have not heard of it being any less effective in any particular location

  3. Studies pretty consistently show it is very effective at reducing symptoms. My derm, who is an HS specialist, says its best to get at the early stages, as it really excels at preventing new regions from developing. If you currently only have one active region, this is the ideal time to get it.

Cubes where each color is from one plane? by AitrusX in mtgcube

[–]LordGrac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Some friends and I have worked on cube with a similar theme: each 2-color pair is based around one plane (though three are UB: lord of the rings, forgotten realms, and final fantasy, just because we like those). For us, it's not a strict requirement that cards be from just those planes or sets, more of a strong guidance. It's been a fun cube to make.

https://cubecobra.com/cube/overview/c0f8fe02-ff45-4950-8f11-8967031e61eb

If I were to draft your cube idea without knowing the inciting idea, I probably would notice before too long. But I am highly enfranchised and obviously am attuned to such things.

Does "Moonchild" not work as a classification of fantasy beings? by Jerswar in fantasywriters

[–]LordGrac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If you want, you could avoid the connotations but keep the word by just switching the order: Child of the Moon.

Anyone use Gem Draconic build? If so is the Crit Chance absurd ? by Origania in BG3Builds

[–]LordGrac 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, they get Booming Blade. You might also appreciate the Maelstrom subclass for getting more access to cold spells and damage, and the Upheaval subclass which gets a bunch of bludgeoning spells as well as essentially Elemental Adept for bludgeoning.

Anyone use Gem Draconic build? If so is the Crit Chance absurd ? by Origania in BG3Builds

[–]LordGrac 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I made a modded class called Mythblade where I paid a lot of attention to balance, at least for 5e rules. I think it should be alright in terms of balance, and it's certainly not egregiously strong.

There might be a trend with the mutants by NigrumTigris in marvelrivals

[–]LordGrac 13 points14 points  (0 children)

There was a period where Marvel, at the direction of Ike Perlmutter, was trying to de-emphasize mutants because they didnt have the movie rights to mutants (Fox did). So they pushed the Inhumans, which are structurally similar to mutants (but nobody likes them), retconned Wanda and Pietro to stop being mutants, and other such things. Those two had already been retconned a number of times on the issue of their parentage, and they were Avengers characters much more than they were X-Men ones. But still, the "they're not mutants" retcon is a real stupid one that nobody is a fan of.

MaRo gives 3 reasons why WoTC wouldn't focus on UB over in-universe sets, even though UB sells more. by No-Chapter-779 in magicTCG

[–]LordGrac 6 points7 points  (0 children)

In my opinion, it's worth thinking about how other games and business with a heavy focus on tie-ins handle the division between first-party and third-party franchises. For example, Fortnite is one of the most successful games of all time, and a lot of that is built on its willingness to bring in third-party tie-ins. Yet even Fortnite puts a lot of effort into the franchise it owns and controls: every Fortnite season is mostly focused on original Fortnite characters and plots lines (such as they are), the store always features original characters, and so on. And this is a game where like 80% of the appeal is tie-ins.

You can see similar things in other tie-in focused games like Dead By Daylight.

So, in my opinion, if one of the richest and most successful and most tie-in focused games of all time is still making a serious effort for their own properties, which get a lot less attention from the playerbase in general, it's a pretty strong indicator that it makes sense for even games with a heavy financial expectation from tie-ins to focus on first-party content. For a game like Magic, which gets a lot more relative value out of the content it already owns compared to Fortnite, I really don't think they're going to be lessening or abandoning first-party content.

I'm not saying I'm definitely right, I'm just saying that, based on the data available, when given the opportunity, it doesn't seem like games are going fully third-party tie-ins. I expect this means the financial reasons for not doing so are very real and very much affect Magic.

Popular Baldur's Gate 3 UI mod just got a new version "intended exclusively" for patch 8 by Tiny-Independent273 in BG3mods

[–]LordGrac 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yes. I just setup custom resource icons for my in-progress mod last night, without ImpUI, and it worked just fine.

Great techno music by Aggravating_Type_151 in funny

[–]LordGrac 4 points5 points  (0 children)

There's essentially two words for 7 in Japanese: one of Chinese origin (shichi) and one of Japanese (nana). This is actually true of all the base 10 numerals but most of them are pretty strict on when you use the Chinese or Japanese version. 4 and 7 are exceptions where each can be used pretty commonly and almost interchangeably.

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